Police officers grapple with language barrier

When police officers recently nabbed a Pardi gang from Madhya Pradesh in connection with the infamous train heist, they had trouble during investigation as the suspects only communicated in their local dialect Pardi. 

However, the officers suspected that the gang must know Hindi, and post a struggle, they confirmed their suspicions, and were able to record the statements in Hindi. Similarly, when two Romanians were arrested in possession of fake debit cards in the city, the duo initially acted like they did not speak English. The police then – with the help of officials from the Central Crime Branch (CCB)–recorded their statements in English before remanding them in judicial custody.

Although it is not new for police personnel to deal with offenders from other states, and sometimes even other countries, in this fast-paced, technology-driven world, such encounters have grown manifold. Foreign suspects are no more just related to drug cartels from African countries – many offenders held for various crimes in the city hail from states in the northeast and north west as well.

With Chennai fast becoming a melting pot for criminals, the city police are staring at the complexity of language during investigation. Unless the offenders speak Hindi or English, police largely depend on interpreters for investigation. "If the suspects speak Telugu, Malayalam, or Kannada, we don’t have much trouble as someone from the police station itself is able to communicate with them. Only in the case of other language offenders, we must seek the help of people who can communicate with the suspect in the specific language to record the statement, and it is not always easy to find the right person. In the case of foreign offenders, we approach professors and students studying or teaching the language in universities. In such cases, we have to take the additional step and categorise the interpreter as a witness and get an affidavit from him/her that the statement was recorded in front of him/her since the offender could not be interrogated directly," said an Assistant Commissioner.

Like dealing with offenders who speak lesser known languages, police also have to deal with victims who cannot directly communicate to police. There have been couple of incidents reported in the previous year in which foreign nationals have been at the receiving end. When DT Next contacted the police personnel, they complained that it was difficult to receive details from the victims because of the language – in some cases, the victims do not cooperate and refuse to part with details police expect. Last year, when a woman from Uzbekistan visited the Vadapalani police station to lodge a complaint, she was able to do so using her mobile phone which had an application to translate her statements to English – she spoke, and the phone reflected her verbal statement in written English text. Easy as it was, this is not possible to do in every scenario," said a police officer.

If the victim is a foreigner, it is wise to get in touch with the respective embassy and ask it to send an interpreter to get a clear picture. However, when the foreigner is on the offensive side, police usually don't approach the embassy. "Since there is a restriction that the suspect has to be remanded within 24 hours, police often do not wait for representative from the embassies and use foreign language students and even tour guides who are well-versed in specific languages to interpret what the suspects have to say,” added the police officer.

Police face a similar fate when they travel to other states to nab suspects. "Unless it is a major case, we usually do not approach the local police in the respective state. That is because it becomes a long process – if we have to nab the suspects with the help of local police they have to be produced before the magistrate there and brought to city¬– and most don’t take this time-consuming route. However, it is not practically possible to get confession from them within 24 hours, so police personnel bring them to city directly," said an Inspector.

In the same way, detaining the non-native suspects under Goondas Act is a costly affair for police as the case book must be typed in his native language. "Recently, I had to spend Rs 70,000 for a case, while the department sanctioned only Rs 8,000," said an Inspector.

A few police personnel think it wise that people with multi-lingual knowledge – specialised in one minor Indian language or foreign language should be recruited as ministerial staff to be used during investigation of cases of non-native residents. "Their language skills could be made use of when needed, while they could be given clerical work as a regular job," suggested an Inspector with CCB. Right now, knowing other languages is appreciated among police personnel, but there is no merit given to it. Mahesh Kumar Aggarwal, Additional Commissioner, said that the department has not faced a critical situation in which they could not communicate with suspects. "It differs from case to case, and a specific language need is fulfilled with available options," he said.

April 10

Russian national Igor Makarov (55) drowned in the sea off Mamallapuram

March 25

Sabeer Lal, a Nepal national, looted an IndianOverseas Bank in Virugambakkam, and escaped to his country

January 9

Helea Emilia (22) from Finland was found dead in a hotel in Triplicane

Nov 1

Nigerian Glen Thomas (30) arrested in Medavakkam for smuggling Methamphetamine 

Oct 3

Australian national Adams (40) commits suicide in Kanathur, police says he was depressed

Sept 14

Sudan national committed suicide in Sholinganallur

 August 4

Sudan national Mohammed Al Mustafa was arrested in possession of a machete at Marina beach 

July 27

German woman The Hao (29) was robbed at knife point on Marina beach

June 17

Thailand woman was rescued from flesh trade in Kanathur 

June 18 

S Nithujen (20) of Sri Lanka was arrested for submitting fake documents to obtain Indian passport in KK Nagar

April 26

NCB and DRI officials seized 3 kg of cocaine from a Portuguese national who at Chennai airport from Sao Paulo